Adobe launches Creative Suite 5, opens pre-orders

Adobe has unveiled a brand new version of its popular Creative Suite software aimed at making web production and media creation easier for enthusiast computer users as well as professionals. Creative Suite 5 builds on the interface changes introduced by its predecessor to bring the included tools closer together, with a tighter focus on the designer workflow, while adding a total of 250 new features to the package.

Old favorites such as Illustrator, Photoshop, Premiere Pro and After Effects are all part of the suite along with roughly a dozen other products. Native 64-bit support in the last three should make file processing significantly faster. New features in the flagship Photoshop include Truer Edge, which brings better edge detecting technology, and Content-Aware Fill, an impressive tool that lets you remove unwanted objects from pictures and generates remarkably accurate background fills -- you can see a video demo of the feature in action here.

Another new feature called Packager for iPhone would have allowed Flash developers to write programs in ActionSript 3 (the language behind Flash) and then cross-compile them into either a Flash app or a standalone iPhone app. Unfortunately for Adobe, Apple banned the use of such compilers in the latest iPhone OS 4.0 licensing agreement.

Detailed descriptions and information on the improvements to each component is available on Adobe's site. As usual, new versions of Adobe's products won't come in cheap. The full Master Collection will set you back as much as $2,599, while the Creative Suite 5 Production Premium kit will start at $1,699. There are also cheaper upgrade options, packages containing a different set of applications, and each app can be purchased standalone.